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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is Okonkwo considered one of the greatest men of his time?
(a) He is a wealthy farmer, the greatest wrestler, has a barn full of yams, and has three wives.
(b) He has patience for all men, even unsuccessful ones.
(c) He is a sympathetic, loving father and husband.
(d) He is the greatest flute player in the village.

2. How are the children of the village prepared for the Feast of the New Yam?
(a) Their entire bodies are painted with cam wood and no clothing is worn to the festival.
(b) Their heads are shaved in beautiful patterns.
(c) Their bodies are rubbed with palm oil, and their hair is decorated with kola nut shells.
(d) They are washed in the riverbed three times the day before the festival, and then dressed in simple robes.

3. What is the decision of the egwugwu after hearing the case for Mgbafo's family against Uzowulu?
(a) The bride-price is to be returned to Uzowulu.
(b) Uzowulu is warned never to beat a woman again or he will be mutilated.
(c) Uzowulu is to bring a pot of wine to Mgbafo's family and beg that his wife be returned to him. Mgbafo's family is to return her to Uzowulu when he brings the wine to them.
(d) The bride-price is not to be paid back to Uzowulu.

4. What is the custom in the village of Obodoani if a man dies during the Week of Peace?
(a) The man is buried outside the village.
(b) The man is not buried, but cast into the Evil Forest.
(c) The man is burned to ashes, instead of buried.
(d) The man is buried as deep as two graves.

5. Why does Okonkwo insult Osugo at a meeting by calling him a woman?
(a) Osugo is talking in a feminine voice.
(b) Osugo is complaining and whining.
(c) Okonkwo calls Osugo a woman because Osugo has no titles and contradicted what Okonkwo had been saying.
(d) Osugo is making womanly hand gestures during the meeting.

6. What is Okonkwo's punishment for committing a "nso-ani" during the Week of Peace?
(a) Bring a she-goat, one hen, a length of cloth, and a hundred cowries to the shrine of Ani.
(b) Go to the shrine of Ani and confess his disrespectful behavior to the gods of the clan, remaining on his knees throughout a day and night.
(c) Go to the shrine of Ani, fast for three days, and beg forgiveness for breaking the sacred peace.
(d) Bring a bamboo basket of yams, a flask of palm-wine and a hen to the shrine of Ani.

7. Nine out of ten of Ekwefi's children die in infancy. After the second death, Okonkwo goes to the medicine man to find out why this is happening. What explanation does the diviner give?
(a) Ekwefi is weak and should not become pregnant again.
(b) Ekwefi did not eat vegetable soup throughout her pregnancies.
(c) The child is an agbanje, a wicked child that enters the mother's womb to be born again.
(d) Ekwefi should just keep trying, and sooner or later a child would survive.

8. Why does Okonkwo beat his second wife, Ojiugo, during the sacred Week of Peace?
(a) She is at a friend's house and does not prepare Okonkwo's afternoon meal.
(b) She cooks a meal that Okonkwo does not like.
(c) She is caught with another man.
(d) She disagrees with what Okonkwo has to say.

9. How does Ekwefi make the medicine she hopes would cure Ezinma?
(a) She grounds kola nuts and bananas together, forming a paste to put on Ezinma's tongue.
(b) She boiled a hen, added yams and nuts to make a medicinal broth for Ezinma to drink.
(c) She puts a pot on the fire, adding medicinal plants, grasses, leaves, roots and barks. She brought them to a boil being careful that it didn't boil over and lose its power.
(d) She mixes palm-wine and red clay into a medicinal mud and rubs it on Ezinma's face and chest.

10. Ezinma tells her mother, Ekwefi, that her upper eyelid is twitching. What does Ekwefi tell Ezinma the significance of the twitch is?
(a) It means Ezinma will see something.
(b) It means the rains will come early this year.
(c) It means Ezinma is going to cry.
(d) It means Ezinma will have many children.

11. What are the things that Okonkwo fears most?
(a) Forces of nature.
(b) Evil and capricious gods.
(c) Failure, weakness, and himself.
(d) The forest and magic.

12. Ezinma offers to bring Okonkwo's chair to the wrestling match for him. Why did he refuse his daughter's offer?
(a) Men prefer to stand during the wrestling match.
(b) Carrying the chair is a boy's job.
(c) He will be busy with preparing the wrestlers for the match and wouldn't need the chair.
(d) Only grown women carry their husband's chairs.

13. What are the crops that are considered women's crops by the people of Umuofia?
(a) Palms, bitter-leaf, foo foo
(b) Coco-yams, beans, cassava
(c) Yams, kola nuts, greens
(d) Gourds, bananas, oil bean

14. What is the strange event that takes place in the village of Ire that Ofoedo tells Okonkwo and Obierika about?
(a) The children of Ire stopped speaking for two days and went into a trance-like state.
(b) All the people in the village of Ire awoke in the night from dreams of disasters to come.
(c) Ogbuefi Ndulue, the oldest man in the Ire village died and upon hearing about it, his wife, Ozoemena, died also.
(d) All the yams planted in the fields rotted during the night from a curse sent by evil spirits.

15. How does Ikemenfuna feel after three weeks of illness?
(a) He is still bitter and afraid.
(b) He vows revenge on Okonkwo and his family.
(c) He gets better and is no longer afraid or sad to be in Okonkwo's home.
(d) He cries every night after his illness for his mother and sisters.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the agreed upon bride-price for Akueke?

2. What descends on the land of Okonkwo, darkens the sky, settles on the rooftops, and breaks mighty tree branches under them?

3. One night, the storytelling of Okonkwo 's wives and children stops because the priestess, Chielo is shouting in a high-pitched voice. What does she tell Okonkwo?

4. Why is Umuofia feared by all its neighbors?

5. What is the emergency that the great orator announces at the meeting in the marketplace?

(see the answer keys)

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